Does Restricting Content = More Members

[jauburn]

How do you use newsletters? What are some of your strategies? I am having a tough time getting members to participate in my forum
https://www.americanmilitaryforum.com/forums/

When I used to make money on a forum (I don't anymore) through Google adsense, newsletters drove big traffic to the site and therefore juiced the ad revenue. Therefore having a large e-mail list of users was beneficial monetarily. OTOH, folks who sign up just for the purpose of gaining access to something as trivial as the ability to view attachments are probably more likely to flag your newsletter as spam, which of course is not good. There are tradeoffs you have to weigh on either side of this question. I'm no longer after eyeballs, a stance that makes me happier.

 

[Dadparvar]

Useful thread an opinions.
I want to see more opinions. So I invite some other members:
@AndyB @Brogan @Chris @Mike @younes

I also restricted downloading attahcments and viewing images. Just members can see them. But I think this is causing reducing traffic of my site.
Need a clearifying idea to choose to let guests use attachments or still restricting them.

Thanks in advance

 

[AndyB]

I also restricted downloading attahcments and viewing images. Just members can see them. But I think this is causing reducing traffic of my site.

I think people want to join a forum when there is good content so they can participate.

Reducing content = less members

Of course there are exceptions but I think this holds true for most forums.

 

[AndreaMarucci]

My forum is a pay one and I've noticed that since the introduction of the annual fee the number of member increased and the members are very qualified. I've lost all the annoying people and this is a good goal...

 

[Webby]

I think people want to join a forum when there is good content so they can participate.

Reducing content = less members

Of course there are exceptions but I think this holds true for most forums.

What type of content do you recommend for a new forum? It's difficult to foster discussions when there are only a couple of active guys. Each thread gets max 5 posts lately. BTW thanks for your addons, I am using a few of them.

You can check out the forum stats on the sidebar.
https://www.americanmilitaryforum.com/forums/

 

[melbo]

I think you need to 'prime' a new forum with either some like minded friends or even some alternate accounts that you use to talk to each other, building up some content. An innactive forum isn't very attractive to a guest.

 

[AndyB]

What type of content do you recommend for a new forum?

News relating to the forum. News can be articles and videos which are interesting.